party/chick (see what i did there?)

We threw a Mardi Gras party last night, a subject I’ll just lightly touch on because, well, apparently I don’t remember the second half of it.  I love to cook and had a ton of friends over for jambalaya, red beans and rice, shrimp-stuffed pistolette rolls, cheese sausage puffs, Cajun bbq chicken, crab cakes, bacon-Nutella brownies, and a King Cake.  It was a TON of fun.  Over the course of 5 hours, I had exactly 2 drinks (okay, so they were Hurricanes made with a splash of Bacardi 151, but it wasn’t much.)  This is where I found out that, although I am now 30 and have the appearance of a 24 year old (so I’m told), I have the insides and recover-ability of a 40 year old.  It turned into one of those nights a girl needs a hair clip in the bathroom, if you catch my drift.  This morning, after sleeping off and on until noon, all I could moan was “What happened?  I used to be able to do this!”  Not cool.  But, if the success of a party is dependent on the number of friends who crashed in various rooms of your house (3) and the amount of glitter on the floor, we totally rocked it.

Also, in new news…our neighbors have chickens.

This was discovered yesterday when we heard the cat going absolutely batty outside and looked through the pool screen to find a baby chick peeping at her and it was royally pissing her off.  Scot grabbed Bella and I squeezed out the door (it’s a little-used door behind the swing) and grabbed the chick.  I started next door to return it and found another one a few feet away, and another one a few feet after that.  After capturing all 3 (which looked exactly as you think it would- I was bending over, arms outstretched, waddling after them going “heeeere chickie chickie”) I knocked on the neighbor’s front door.  First time meeting the neighbors.  Nice lady, she only speaks about 60% English but we managed to get the chicks back into their little cage she had on her back porch.  Then she said “Uh oh, dere eees one more…” We went back out the side gate and found the 4^th chick, which was heading over towards our screen door.  Back in the cage he went.

This afternoon, we heard the sound of the chicks “peep peep peep”-ing again.  It was louder than usual (we can hear them from the yard next door in their cage), so we went outside and what do you know, there they are again, all 4, taunting the cat from the screen door again.  I told Scot to grab the cat and meet me outside with some twisty ties, then I went out the door and waddled around capturing chicks.  Again.  They almost got away from me, running under the bushes this time, but I managed to scoop them up just in time.  I went straight into the neighbor’s back yard to return them to their cage, waving at Diana through her living room door.  She came out, apologizing and laughing, and we put the chicks back in the cage.  Scot came through the gate with the twisty ties and I wired the cage shut.  The little doors on it were just spring-loaded and did not lock, which means that those 4 freaking chicks were either super crafty or flat-out bionic to push through it.  And the fact that ALL 4 of them escaped every time means that they ALL pushed through the door one at a time (or, as Scot suggested, they came up with a plan to intentionally taunt my cat and one held the door open and the others all used team work to climb out, “Mission Impossible” style or something.)  I do expect fresh eggs in a few months, because these chicks owe me their lives. 

note to self: buy socks with the little grippy things on the bottom...

Here’s my pitch to the DIY network for their newest show: “Scot And Maggie Renovate A House” (title is up for negotiation).  “This reality show follows a central Florida couple as they watch Youtube for instructions and then tear things apart and attempt to remodel their home.  Previous projects include 2 bathrooms and 2 guest bedrooms.  The first episode has them ripping up carpet and busting up floor tile to install 900 square feet of wood flooring- Scot leads the way and Maggie ends up injuring herself every half hour, which through the magic of television looks like every 3 minutes…”

On second thought, the show would warrant an “MA” rating for strong language and probably end up on Showtime at 11pm.

But anyway, this was the big project we’d been planning for!  It took 9 days and we used up every single piece of flooring, save for ONE.  How’s that for calculations?  We broke a hammer, a screwdriver, wore holes in 2 pairs of gloves (then tried to duct tape over those holes but just ended up taping our [meaning, MY] fingers to the gloves), and on the home stretch of the project, Scot finally broke the tapping block.  If you’ve ever put in a wood laminate floor before, the tapping block is kind of a VERY important tool and the damn thing broke on a Sunday night at 9pm.  Tools and I don’t get along very well- I beat myself up with the mallet and never did get a handle on that pull-bar thingy that you beat with a hammer to snap all the pieces together.  I’m really good as supervising and sweeping, ok?

We had some great friends to help us out along the way- Doug came by to assist with the demo: moving furniture, pulling up carpet and padding and busting a bajillion square feet of really grody tile.  For 4 days, the fridge and stove were occupying the living room and we were both really sick of take-out by that time.  Our friend Justin came by on the second day to help us chip away all the mortar from under the tile because apparently whoever lay the tile thought they were icing a damn birthday cake and it was so thick all we could do is tap a chisel into it with a hammer for 8 hours straight.  After that, I was back at work and Scot worked all day at the house putting down the actual floor.  When I got home, we kept working.  And the next morning, we did some more.  And the day after that.  And the day after that… Good god when did 900 square feet get so big???  Then I realized- yeah that’s bigger than my old apartment.  This is actually really HUGE project.  There was so much dust in the air that all I did during the week was *cough cough cough hack cough cough.*  It sounded really pathetic.

Finally, yesterday when I got home from work- it was magical!  Like walking in on a surprise home makeover show!  While I was at work all day, Scot finished the entire project- floors done, baseboards done, furniture moved off the back porch (oh just ASK me how ghetto THAT felt to have everything on the patio for a week!) and everything was swept clean and dusted, with a scented candle burning to top it all off…AND...AAAAAAAND…Dinner in the oven!!!!!

I love this guy J

So we’re living with it now and it looks fantastic!  The cat is still adjusting, it’s pretty funny when she tries to run and slips and can’t quite make the sharp turns she could on the carpet.  Heh heh.

Anyway, I’ve got a couple decorating projects lined up so check back in a bit!